Gardening

[rdavenport]

Just been in the garden, inspried me to resurrect this thread.

Despite the cold and the dead foliage, there are signs that Spring is coming. Hamamelis and Hellebores about to flower, plus the first snowdrops are showing their faces. Such a hopeful time of year.

Yes, last two days have been lovely (and impressive full moon in a clear sky at night).

I've spotted the first snowdrop too.

Sadly, also spotted five dead frogs floating atop the pond - clearly killed in the bad weather. Had to bury them with full honours accompanied by a Ravel adaptation - "Pavane Pour Les Grenouilles Defunte". And a bugle playing "The Last Croak".

Boom boom!

I'm hoping for more frogs this year. I sunk an old ceramic sink last spring, and spotted one or two frogs through the summer. I don't know where they're based, but it would be nice for some spawn eventually. I'm not holding my breath - my mum has had a small pond for 20 years, with loads of adult frogs, but they've never spawned there.

[A Lark Ascending]

My pond is positivel pornographic in late-Feb/early March for a week or so. Scores of the things!

Hope the winter massacre has not put an end to that.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

We have a few snowdrops coming out on the front lawn. Nothing else yet, though. In all the previous winters since we moved in (2005), we've had some heroic flowers that have bloomed right through the winter - first pansies, then Kaffir Lilies. But even they were killed off by the severe cold this winter.

I don't do gardening; my missus does and I do digging stuff at her orders. What she plants, grows. What I plant, dies. She grew up in the country.

Here's a pic of the back garden in July 2006, a year after we moved in.

MG

[Free For All]

Beautiful garden, MG!

[Jazzjet]

Just been in the garden, inspried me to resurrect this thread.

Despite the cold and the dead foliage, there are signs that Spring is coming. Hamamelis and Hellebores about to flower, plus the first snowdrops are showing their faces. Such a hopeful time of year.

Yes, last two days have been lovely (and impressive full moon in a clear sky at night).

I've spotted the first snowdrop too.

Sadly, also spotted five dead frogs floating atop the pond - clearly killed in the bad weather. Had to bury them with full honours accompanied by a Ravel adaptation - "Pavane Pour Les Grenouilles Defunte". And a bugle playing "The Last Croak".

Being in the south west corner of the UK, plants tend to appear earlier. This year, however, things are a little later than usual and todays snowfall won't have helped. We've had snowdrops for a couple of weeks though and the daffodils are starting to show their heads. My wife's the head gardener and we open our garden for charity in the summer so I can envisage a lot of unskilled work ahead to get things straight.

[papsrus]

Spectacular garden MG. And the Nessas seem to have it figured out.

Dan may be right about trying to get an edible yard going in Florida.

Citrus trees are easy enough, of course, but you can only eat so many oranges or grapefruits. We had two large avocado trees when I was married (ex got the house and the trees) and it was like bombs dropping on the roof when those things began to fall. They don't ripen on the tree, so they're quite hard when they drop. I love 'em, sliced in half, little bit of oil and vinegar, salt and pepper ... yum. But those trees produced hundreds and hundreds of them. Plus, avocados are kind of the cheeseburger of the veggie world, so ...

[rdavenport]

Just been out doing my garden Spring-clean. Cutting back all last year's dead foliage revealed lots of new shoots, buds are swelling on Rhododendrons and Camellias, and the bulbs will soon be flowering. There is even a shoot emerging from the asparagus!

My absolute favourite time of the year, especially after the old-fashioned (ie bloody cold) Winter we've had in the UK.

Edited February 24, 2010 by rdavenport

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes, despite more snow this week and gloomy mist this morning, it looks encouraging.

My heating packed in again - just had British gas sort it out.

But stirrings in the garden make it look as if this might soon be a thing of the past.

I hacked at all the surplus foliage back in October. Pure guesswork. I'm curious to see what pops up. I've a nice patch of some sort of grass that grows tall and acts as a sort of divide half way down the garden. It's already bursting forth.

[rdavenport]

A month on, and it's beginning to feel like Spring (a month late, according to the people who record these things for horticultural purposes).

I even mowed the lawn yesterday, and am noticing new things in the garden every day. If I could only reduce photos to a size manageable on the forum (hints?), I'd post some!

[aparxa]

No more snow, it just rains now, a prelude to spring.

hint: Windows: Open with -> Paint -> Options: Resize -> 30 percent horizontal and Vertical -> Save as, that should make it!

Edited March 21, 2010 by aparxa

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

It's been an unusually cold winter here and very little has come through. We had only 3 snowdrops on the front lawn and St David's Day (1 March - when the Welsh wear dafodils in their lapels) came and went without a sign of daffs. They've been poking their heads through in the past couple of days. So the front lawn looks kind of there, just about. But the back garden's a disaster area so far. A little bit of new growth on the Acers. I spotted a bit of new growth on a thistle today.

Oh well, we'd better have a nice summer, is all I can say, or I'll complain to the management.

MG

[sidewinder]

Daffs are making appearance here - and the snowdrops have been out a few weeks.

Looking promising .. apart from the badgers digging up the back garden.

Edited March 21, 2010 by sidewinder

[porcy62]

One week ago I moved out my cactus from the small greenhouse I have on the flat roof, hope I'll do some gardening the upcoming weekends. I have a lower terrace too and a very tiny garden around the house. So most of the plants are in pot or small box. I have a couple of lemon trees, an olive tree, a common laburnum, a pomegranate, four Eugenia myrtifolia and several climbing plants: bouganvillea, jasmine, Pandorea jasminoides, Solanum capsicastrum, ivy, Trachelospermum jasminoides, (fake jasmine?), and wisteria.

Actually we are very proud of it, that's typical of town mice.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

MG

[sidewinder]

One week ago I moved out my cactus

Cactus? It wouldn't last 5 minutes outside here. Maybe in the kitchen, perhaps !

[porcy62]

One week ago I moved out my cactus

Cactus? It wouldn't last 5 minutes outside here. Maybe in the kitchen, perhaps !

The problem with most cactus in winter is not the cold, supposed it doesn't go too much below 0 C, it's rain, since they 'sleep' in this season the water in the pot is not feeding the plant, and the roots rottens. And this winter we had a 'english' season in Rome.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

After a very hard winter and spring, a more or less dry May, with 10 days of excellent weather, then a lot of rain yesterday, the garden's looking quite decent, today.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice garden, MG. Like the colour contrasts, especially with that reddy-brown one - japanese acer? I'm useless at plant identification.

I moved into my house in 1991 and did nothing for about 13 years - it alternated between The Somme and weed city. Then suddenly I got interested and just made it up as I went along. I'd never have believed how much pleasure that little patch out back could bring.

Edited May 30, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Nice garden, MG. Like the colour contrasts, especially with that reddy-brown one - japanese acer? I'm useless at plant identification.

I note the quick edit

Yes, it's an Acer. We have several. Here's a bigger pic of the big one at the back.

Actually I prefer the little one in front of it. Tried to take a pic just now, but my hand was unsteady.

MG

Er... unsteadier.

[A Lark Ascending]

I note the quick edit

Yes, I think I had some form of cactus to begin with!

Yes, it's an Acer. We have several. Here's a bigger pic of the big one at the back.

You have given me an idea for my own garden!

I'm very fond of the grasses that I put in a couple of years back behind the small pond.

I also have three hop plants. Originally I had them in pots - they'd grow so far, then shrivel, grow again,then shrivel. But put in the garden proper they have gone bonkers. Beautiful lime green leaves:

Not nearly as tidy as yours (though we seem to have the same bird table)! Must move that bin.

[Quincy]

Returning to the Amerikin definition of the word in the subject line , I planted a few tomatoes yesterday as we're having a 2 day break from an ongoing unusual (even for here in the Willamette Valley) cool & rainy stretch w/ more on the way. Normally I don't mind waiting until early June to plant tomatoes & peppers but my poor starts were straining in tiny pots. Eating peas & various greens, poles beans are poking out of the ground, and garlic has rust because of the cool wet weather. Hopefully the garlic shakes it off if we ever get sun.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Returning to the Amerikin definition of the word in the subject line

I never knew that in American, gardening exclsively meant growing food! Learn something every day.

What do yo ucall it when you grow flowers, bushes & etc in your garden?

I planted a few tomatoes yesterday as we're having a 2 day break from an ongoing unusual (even for here in the Willamette Valley) cool & rainy stretch w/ more on the way. Normally I don't mind waiting until early June to plant tomatoes & peppers but my poor starts were straining in tiny pots. Eating peas & various greens, poles beans are poking out of the ground, and garlic has rust because of the cool wet weather. Hopefully the garlic shakes it off if we ever get sun.

Actually, I suppose you have more reliable weather than we do. My father-in-law used to lose tons of stuff when the weather turned as crappy as it normally does in Britain. Only the rhubarb seemed to do well under any circumstances.

MG

I also have three hop plants. Originally I had them in pots - they'd grow so far, then shrivel, grow again,then shrivel. But put in the garden proper they have gone bonkers. Beautiful lime green leaves:

It's a lovely colour. You'll be brewing your own beer next

we seem to have the same bird table

Pinched yours last night

MG

[Quincy]

I wouldn't say it's exclusive, but it's probably the more common meaning. At least in the parts of the country that I've lived in. Usually when shrubs and (non-fruit) trees are involved it becomes "landscaping," although certainly "garden" may be used when it involves flowers too. Many times if the flower garden has a style it may be described as a Japanese garden, English garden, and so on. There are garden societies and garden tours where the word garden is used in a more English sense. I suppose the usage may determined by one's upbringing or which type of gardening is preferred.

As a kid visiting relatives in Ulster I discovered "yard" has a different meaning. I was talking with an uncle & cousin (who were both avid golfers) about sticking a flag in the back yard and using a my dad's wedge to hit golf balls at the target. I could see my uncle was getting a bit upset, and finally he said "Well what does your father have to say about you scuffing his clubs in the yard?" I was puzzled, saying I only hit the balls off the grass. A little back & forth and finally we learned the difference between an English "yard" and an American "back yard" - the latter is mostly grass, whereas the former involves concrete. Much to the relief of my uncle, who thought a young barbarian was staying in his house. He probably hid his clubs anyway.

Flowers or food, it's all good as far as gardening goes.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks Q.

MG

[Christiern]

At the moment, my garden is modest—one avocado. Photo taken yesterday.